Follow-up of the Czech research on cannabis use at Parkinson’s disease patients
According a questionnaire survey on cannabis use in patients suffering of Parkinson’s disease carried on in the Czech Republic in 2004, long-term use of cannabis mitigates symptoms of this illness, namely bradykinsia as well as muscle rigidity and tremor. The alleviation of PD symptoms was significantly more often reported by patients using cannabis regularly for a longer period of time (3 months or more).
To confirm their cannabis use, urine samples from 8 patients frequently using cannabis were quantitatively analyzed. All results were positive, confirming their cannabis use. Interestingly, all regular users having 11-nor-delta-9-THCOOH concentrations in urine above 60 ng/ml (n = 3) reported significant improvement in bradykinesia, 2 patients alleviation of their muscle rigidity and both patients who suffered from dyskinesia improved this effect. One patient could even decrease his dose of levodopa.
In contrast, one patient who was not a regular cannabis user (he used it for the first time one day before the tests) did not experience any changes neither in his PD symptoms, nor in dyskinesia, in spite of the fact his THC concentration in urine was the second highest. These results support our hypothesis that long-term regular use of cannabinoids is essential for alleviation of PD symptoms.
These results are supporting findings of the previous questionnaire study and would suggest that cannabinoids have a favorable effect, especially on bradykinesia, and that a regular and long-term use of cannabis is an important factor influencing the symptoms of PD. There are several possible explanations for these results.
Experiments on healthy rats explained that the influence of delta-9-THC on motoric abilities depends on the applied dose: while low doses rather slow this kind of activity, higher doses stimulate it, although very high doses might provoke catalepsy. Retarded effect of cannabinoids might be explained by progressive accumulation of low doses in the organism, among other.
Research team: Venderova Katerina(1), Ruzicka Evzen(2), Vorisek Viktor(3), Visnovsky Peter(1) (1) Chair of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Pharmaceutical Faculty of Charles University, Hradec Králové
(2) Neurological Clinic of the 1st Faculty of Medicine of Charles University and VFN, Prague
(3) Department of Clinical Toxicology and Mass Spectrometry, Institute of Clinical Biochemy and Diagnostics, FN in Hradec Králové
